Hard To Say
by shadowjack12345
Summary: Just a little Valentine's Day drabble.


**Hard To Say**

 **Just a little Valentine's thingy...**

"Face it, Garfield. You're a coward."

The green youth in question stared at himself in the mirror, his expression almost hostile. For months now, the changeling had nurtured a crush on one of his colleagues. On Raven. It was Valentine's Day today and he had been telling himself he would do something or say something to at least hint at what he felt.

When the day came, he knew it wouldn't happen. He was afraid, more than he expected, of what might happen. Raven was unpredictable at best when faced with emotional situations, and he was desperately frightened of doing any damage to their friendship, fragile and occasionally strained as it was. That fragility was all in his head of course - Raven valued him in a way she had never satisfactorily expressed, even as she hoped he knew anyway. But, none of this was known to him and so he swallowed his feelings as he left his room and went to join the others. As he marched down the corridor, Raven seemed to materialise before him and he yelped in surprise, stepping back. She faced him and, with one hand, lowered her hood to glare at him. He reminded himself to breathe as he stared back, taking advantage of the opportunity as she remained silent. Eventually, however, even he felt awkward.

"Uh... Raven?" he muttered. Her mouth set in a grim line and she marched past him, grumbling incoherently, seemingly heading back to her room. He shook his head and resumed his course, glad he had decided not to confess to her when she was so obviously irate. Before he reached the door, Raven appeared again, stepping from the shadow on the wall. This time he almost shrieked and stepped back. What was going on? She repeated the previous encounter, only staring at him, though her expression was stormy and her mouth twisted as she growled - _growled!_ \- in her throat. Before he could speak again, Raven pushed past him once more, this time stamping every step and waving her hands above her head, snarling words in a harsh, demonic tongue.

Deciding he definitely didn't want to be alone at the moment, Beast Boy slapped the door control and darted into the common room. Robin and Starfire stood in the kitchen and Cyborg sat in front of the TV with a cup of coffee.

"Hey, uh... is Raven okay? She kinda-" Beast Boy's words were lost to a shrill cry as the darkness from each shadowy corner of the room seemed to grow and pool and coalesce into a towering shape before him. The amorphous shape resolved into Raven in her demonic form: tall with four red eyes and whipping coils of shadow beneath her.

"BEAST BOY!" she roared, her voice unnaturally low and guttural. Beast Boy cried out when some of the tendrils snapped out and wrapped around his body, pinning his arms to his sides and lifting him up to Raven's eye-level. He whimpered under the stare of those four red eyes and the snapping fangs.

"R-Raven! I don't know what I did but I'm sorry please don't eat me or set me on fire or turn me into a lamp or-"

"Haaa... Haaaa...Haaaa... Haaaa..."Raven breathed. At first, Beast Boy thought she was just breathing heavily or snarling at him... but what if she was trying to say something. Her hood flew back and her hair stood on end, her entire form surrounded by dark power.

"Haaa...GrrrrrrrrRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPY VALENTINE'S DAAAAAAAY!" she screamed. Silence pervaded the common room for several long moments until, suddenly, the towering darkness quickly shrank into a severely embarrassed young woman. Beast Boy fell to the floor, caught at the last second by a floating black hand and set on his feet.

"Thanks," he mumbled, unable to meet Raven's gaze (if he'd tried he'd know she was staring at the floor as well). Raven fidgeted beneath her cape.

"Excuse me," she said, quietly. "I... I let my frustration get the better of me." She finally looked at Beast Boy, who was by now glancing at her every few seconds. "I'm sorry, Beast Boy. I didn't want to frighten you... here." Her hand emerged from her cloak, holding a small card. Hesitantly, Beast Boy took it, and looked down at the picture: it reminded him of some ink paintings from Japan he had seen once during their time in Tokyo. There wasn't much in it, only an unmistakable T-shaped silhouette at the bottom and, in the skies above, two distant birds. Once was dark blue. The other was green. He opened it and saw the simple message: ' _Come fly with me_ '. He looked up at her only to see her standing with folded arms, looking off to her right. He grinned for a moment and fished around in the pouch on his belt. From there, he retrieved the card he hadn't the courage to deliver and handed it to Raven. She eyed it suspiciously for a moment before taking it. It had a picture of a cartoon bee on it with a message beside it: ' _You're the bees knees_ '. She opened it and saw her name. Beneath her name, it read ' _from_ _Beast Boy_ _Garfield_ '. She looked up with wide, astonished eyes and met his. With a shrug, he extended his hand again, empty this time.

"You wanna get a soda or something?" he asked in a shaky voice. Raven smirked at him.

"Or something," she said, her usual confidence slowly returning. Beast Boy chuckled and indicated his hand, which Raven slowly took in her own. Beast Boy led them to the window and pushed one open.

"Come fly with me, Rae," he said before shifting into, of course, a Raven and flapping out through the window. Raven rolled her eyes.

"It's Raven," she muttered fondly, then followed him. Robin and Starfire stared after them with open mouths and wide eyes. Cyborg merely sipped his drink and changed the channel.

"She went through with it," he called back to Robin, still unresponsive. "You owe me ten bucks."

 **Ha ha! I wrote something! I once wrote something similar from BB's Raven's perspective while a nervous BB tried and failed to give her a card so I flipped it this time. Hope you like.**

 **-Jack**


End file.
